'Nothing Will Be As Hard As That Again': Emma Watson Says Harry Potter Prepared Her For 'Demanding' Role In Noah

Emma Watson has insisted that after spending most of her childhood on the set of the Harry Potter movies, she's prepared for anything a movie can throw at her - including acting out a birth scene in her new film Noah.

Emma stars as Ila in Darren Aronofsky's bible to big screen adventure, the daughter-in-law of Russell Crowe's Noah, who vows to save his family after having visions of an apocalyptic flood.

Shooting in Southern Iceland and New York state, Emma and the rest of the cast were forced to spend hours on end in freezing conditions, something the actress was well prepared for thanks to her Harry Potter days.

"I remember being on set and Darren was saying, 'Okay, the water is going to be cold, we're probably going to be here for a full day, try and conserve your energy between takes, like keep warm and make sure you eat properly. This is going to be physically very demanding'", Emma tells Reuters.

"For a minute I felt very intimidated and then there's something about having done those Harry Potter films and they were very physical. We did a lot of stuff in Scotland. It was freezing cold, filming at four in the morning, working crazy hours. It's kind of comforting in a way to know that in some senses, nothing will be as hard as that again, and I'm pretty prepared for most things people can throw at me, whether it be animals, water, stunts, CGI (computer-generated imagery), whatever it is".

"It was a very good school in a way and set me up very well for this kind of environment and this kind of pressure," she added.

Emma is used to physically demanding roles thanks to ten years playign Hermione Granger (WENN)

As well as dealing with the brutal physical conditions, Emma also had another challenge to overcome - giving birth on screen. "I did a lot a research because I become a mother in the story, and obviously have never given birth myself. That required quite a lot of careful thinking", Emma explains. "Darren and I had this conversation where we both agreed that in so many films, women give birth and it looks like they're barely breaking a sweat. We wanted it to feel very raw, very real and so I took it pretty seriously".

The actress adds that she took the opportunity during pre-production to talk to "any pregnant woman anywhere, I'd be like, 'Can I talk to you? Can I talk to you about your experience?'"

"I spoke to my own mother a lot, obviously, and then I watched a lot of YouTube videos of natural births, lots of documentaries, spoke to midwives, just any information I could get my hands on, really".